Well Wednesday night I finally nit the bullet and went to Universal Studios Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) 21. Admittedly I initially wasn’t looking forward to it. In previous years I’ve always felt that while they have beautiful sets and rather impressive scenery the scare factor just wasn’t ever there for me. With the rather weak icon of Lady Luck I had set myself up to not really enjoy this year. I admit now for the world to see that I was very much mistaken about HHN 21.
This year I attended with my boyfriend and his mother. Turning it into a family vacation made it all the more fun. Within the first ten minutes of entering the park we saw these chainsaw wielding creatures with black mohawks and spades embossed over one eye. They managed to scare a woman so badly that she went a** over teakettle and about took her male companion down with her. We went to the right and entered the scare zone 7.
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| Wrath, I think |
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| Gluttony's "Pet" |
7: The description on the map reads, “By day, these seven Temptresses appear as a spectacle of beauty. But by night, they show their true fatal evil forms.” This was one of the only well lit zone in the park. However I fell that the concept of the seven deathly sins was somewhat lost. We spent a fair amount of time trying to identify each sin. The roaming “pets” made it slightly easier to understand. There was a lot of hissing and growling and blowing in people’s faces by some of these zombie “pets.” One of my companions even made a comment about needing a tic-tac only to be told, “Zombies don’t need tic-tacs.” Clever comeback, if not slightly disgusting. From 7 we made our way to Grown Evil.
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| Busty Bat in Grown Evil |
Grown Evil (GE): I loved the masks and costumes in this zone; however their staff really discourages any kind of picture taking. The lighting was so poor as to render picture taking darn near impossible anyway. The lighting and fog was so bad I feel like the whole effect actually got lost. There were also several hissing raven/crow-like creatures. I found the hissing more confusing than scary. I have never seen a bird hiss. Next we made our way to Canyon of Dark Souls.
Canyon of Dark Souls (CoDS): The map has this to say about CoDS: “An overwhelming sense of death surrounds you, and the creatures that dwell within the Canyon are not welcoming.” This scare zone was…disappointing. It was a length of black pipe and drape down two sides of a sidewalk and standing within it were stilt walkers dressed all in black with oversized skull masks on. (I think they were meant to be a personification of Death.) That’s it. The lighting was terrible, I didn’t see any fog. Over all it was extremely second-rate. Our next stop was Nevermore: The Madness of Poe.
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| Facade to Nevermore |
Nevermore: For those of you who either follow the haunt community or read my previous post on Howl-O-Scream (HOS) you will notice overlap here for both parks have a house named Nevermore telling the story of Edgar Allen Poe. We waited maybe 20 minutes for this house in the standard cue line. While the façade left something to be desired the interior of the house was beautiful as always. Periodically through the house you see Poe and his decent into madness as he gives into his alcoholism. Each room tells a different tale. I loved their ravens and their Black Cat room honestly is better than the one at Busch Gardens. The Masque of the Red Death was slightly unnerving with all the coughing but I found the pit and the pendulum room very lack luster. Which Nevermore is better? Depends on what you’re looking for. I like the actors and the visuals better in the HOS house but HHN’s definitely tells a better, clearer story. After Nevermore we moved on to H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: Holidays of Horror.
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| Movie projection |
H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: Holidays of Horror (HR): This was the longest wait we made in a standard cue line. We waited a little over half an hour. Due to HHN’s amazing cue line control and distractions, it felt like no time at all. The concept for the house is you are witness to H.R. Bloodengutz final creature feature presentation before he’s taken off the air. As you stand in the cue you can watch, projected on the side of one of the buildings, the different introductions to the various Holidays of Horror films. Bloodengutz has one for St. Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Arbor Day, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (I’m really not sure if that is a complete list). This is the tongue in cheek house similar to Zombiegeddon from last year. While the concept was fun, I can’t say I loved the house. There were a lot of spots in the house that would have made great scare spots for an actor and were completely unpopulated. However, their Thanksgiving “turkey” more than made up for it. After HR we continued to Winter’s Night and passed through Acid Assault.
Acid Assault: The concept here is that the people you see around you are the survivors of acid rain. Behind them projected onto the buildings is an incredible visual of crumbling buildings. While I didn’t manage to get any video of the affect, my recommendation to my readers is go find it on Youtube! The actors were fun with shopping carts and cow bells but here they had an incredible zombie-like creature in a wheelchair and that dude rocked!!! Just like his Charles Manson counterpart at HOS I enjoyed watching him (I’m assuming) take advantage of his lower stature and scare the dickens out of unsuspecting guests.
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| Weeping Angel |
Winter’s Night: The Haunting of Hawthorn Cemetery: The entire atmosphere in this house is incredible. The majority of the house takes place in an outside cemetery so you see the snow and the crypts but also feel the chill in the air. This entire house is freezing. This is the only house to truly get me. One of the undertaker-like characters in the beginning of the house came around the corner and timed it perfectly. I jumped much to the amusement of my party. I wish the lighting had been brighter so the crypts could have been read and the ‘weeping angel’ characters up front made me giggle. I doubt they were in homage to The Doctor but I couldn’t help it. Seeing as how we had made amazing time we advanced back into the park to see The Forsaken.
The Forsaken: OK yeah, I really wasn’t impressed with the story-line for this house. “Within an abandoned Spanish Fort, the mutinous undead crew of Columbus’s missing fourth ship has returned with a vengeance.” If you are unfamiliar with the stories of the Spanish fort, Columbus, and the crew of the wrecked Santa Maria here are two links to help you out. http://staugustine.com/stories/071206/civic_advocate_civav_1.shtml http://www.shipsofdiscovery.org/columbus.htm Frankly, I felt that the reference was too obscure and would render the house confusing and pointless. This turned out to be my favorite house of the night. The masks were amazing with their glowing the green eyes and the scenic made you feel as if you were on the lost ship, wet and cold with the crew. (Yes there were a lot of water effects. You will get damp.)The final scare was simply amazing! *spoiler alert* It was a bungee scare and probably one of the best executed I’ve ever seen. You just see these green eyes moving at you way too fast.
The In-Between: This is HHN’s attempt at a 3D house and holy crow!!!!! You are deposited, by way of a nauseating spinning tunnel, into this 3D “phantasm of terror”. The lights are incredible, the effects are stellar, and Mom even managed to pull an a** muscle. Truthfully that’s how you can tell if a house is good, did Mom pull her a**. I can’t even begin to describe this house. There are effects that make you “feel” the lights and their incredible use of strobes make things appear out of nowhere.
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